Some Quick Hits for Saturday

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/05/2008 12:54:00 PM | | | | |
Josef Vasicek looks like he is headed to Russia to play on Lokomotiv with Alexei Yashin here according to a Russian newspaper.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good luck to Josef Vasicek. He came here off two years with knee problems, stayed healthy and gave all he had. To ask for more production than he gave would not be in line with what he has done in his career. With Vasicek your going to get a player when he is healthy who could score ten goals in fifteen games but eventually will go twenty games or more without a goal. Last season that approached thirty games.

For a team using him as a second line center, that's a big problem on a team without a true first line talent.

In the Quick Hits Department:
No shock Kevin Lowe is firing back at Brian Burke. I'm a bit more on Burke's side
(maybe because he sued Larry Brooks) but this stuff does nothing for hockey and is worthless. Lowe since his holdout from Edmonton has always seemed about himself and has a little too much of that Messier sense of entitlement in him for me. I wonder how long before the new ownership puts their own general manager in place?

Dan Boyle is upset he was basically verbally threatened (players words) he would be placed on waivers and wind up in Atlanta if he did not waive his NTC. Impossible to blame Boyle here because the new owners in Tampa should have respected the old ownerships agreement or at least had more class in asking him to waive his no trade clause but this seems to be the latest trend which leads us to Bryan McCabe and the media reports about pressure being placed on him.

For all the revenue the so-called experts guessing about franchises making money vs losing money why didn't Toronto simply buy McCabe out and show some class if they make all the money so many claim?

That buyout period has ended, McCabe has a no movement clause which means exactly that.

No waivers, no trades, no AHL. He plays in Toronto or he goes home a suspended hockey player. I think the NHLPA will have something to say if they try and send McCabe home healthy.

A lot of Islander fans were not happy at the deadline about the NTC Mike Milbury gave Miro Satan when he signed, thankfully Snow kept his thoughts out of the newspaper.

One paper today wrote the New York Islanders will go into next season without a twenty five goal scorer on the roster. To be fair based on that I do not expect to see any predictions with them in the playoffs like the few from last year come August or September.

Good thing the Islanders have that twenty minute Islanders Illustrated to keep us going. I guess Cablevision forgot to release a schedule of Islanders games from last season with all that incredible programming on Msg Plus.

Now free agency starts getting interesting as some players get some serious lowball offers while others wind up on the unemployment line or also head to the new Russian league. If Garth Snow is considering a trade the battle of wits with other general managers looking to create cap space begins now.

Maybe that's why he kept Toronto's second rounder?